If you’ve landed on this page, chances are you know that one of the most important things you can do for your business is design a GREAT logo concept. BUT, what you probably didn’t know is that great logos aren’t easy to come by. They’re more than just slapping together some type and a shape or two. A great logo is something that’s instantly recognizable from across the room - something that gives your potential customers that ah-ha moment, when they look at your logo and it just clicks.

The hard truth is it’s about color palettes, letter fonts, types of logos and that’s just the beginning. If you’re just starting out, or maybe you don’t have the spare resources to hire an in-house designer, then hiring a freelance graphic designer is for you. You’ll never have to resort to drawing something in Microsoft Paint!

But with so many freelance graphic designers out there, how can you be sure you’re getting the right variety of logo concepts for your business?

What You Need To Consider Before Hiring A Logo Designer:

Before you even start looking for your freelance graphic designer, you need to have some ideas about what you want and need. You’re more likely to get an appropriate and useful logo concept if you can give your designer some direction.

What Type Of Logo Do You Want?

You need to have a clear idea of what you want, because it could affect who you approach for a design, how you frame your project brief, and even how much time it takes for the design to be completed. There are six basic types of logos, each conveying a slightly different impression upon your target audience:

The Wordmark

The Lettermark

The Submark

The Brand Mark or Pictorial Mark

Abstract Iconography

The Logo System

Who Is Your Target Audience?

If you’re a budding tech entrepreneur, looking to attract people in the tech community, you’ll probably want to steer away from childish concepts and fonts.

But, if you’re opening a children’s toy store, a child-like font and color scheme would be appropriate.

See what we’re getting at?

In every industry, there are definitely some no-no’s. For example, using Comic Sans MS should be right out. When you’ve chosen a good designer, they’ll know this kind of information - you just need to tell them what to expect. Who are your customers or clients? Think about age range and interests. What will appeal to them?

Know Your Competition

What else is out there? You don’t want a logo which looks identical to a rival company, but at the same time, seeing what they’re doing can give you ideas about the direction you want to go in. You can get ideas from the competition, but the final product has to look like something new.

Dig Around For Concept & Color Inspiration

If the goal is to connect with your audience, there’s no better way then color. The use and selection of the right colors can strengthen a graphic design’s message - even taking a mediocre design to the next level.

Generally:

Red is the color of energy, passion, action, ambition and determination. It is considered a high-arousal color, often driving people to take risks.

Yellow is the color of optimism and cheerfulness; but it can also suggest impatience and criticism. It is another high-arousal color that can be used to grab attention.

Blue is the color of trust and peace. It can also suggest loyalty and integrity, and has been known to calm the senses. It is often the go-to color for corporate businesses because it’s non-invasive and productive.

Orange is the color of social communication, optimism and confidence. It is often the chosen color for call-to-actions (to buy, sell, or subscribe).

Green is the color of balance and growth. It is often associated with health, nature and good luck.

Violet is the color of the imagination. It can also suggest creativity.

Pink is the color of unconditional love and nurturing. It can also suggest immaturity and silliness.

Gold is the color of success, prosperity, luxury, prestige and sophistication.

Black is the color of the hidden, the secretive, the unknown and the mysterious.

The more details you can give a potential designer, the better they will be able to tailor their work to your needs. If you’re looking for some example color palettes, check out this article here.

Finding The Perfect Graphic Designer

The first thing you need to decide is whether you’re going to rely on your own skills or recruit someone else. While you’re the most likely to be able to realize your own vision exactly as you want it, you may not have the skills you need to make a finished and professional product. Even if you do, you might want to delegate the job to save you time! This is where the Freelancer community can come in, and you have a few different options for getting the perfect design.

What Makes A Good Logo?

So, now you know how to find a designer and what you might direction you might want to go in, but how do you know when you find the right design? It might just strike you as perfect on the first go - but it might take a little more thought. Consider the following:

1. Relevance

It’s no good having an absolutely stunning logo that says nothing about the actual business or project it represents. Just as Pizza Hut don’t have pictures of fruit on their logos, even though they’re involved with food, you need to make sure that any imagery you include is related to your specific sector. The same goes for choosing fonts too (especially cursive fonts), though this is more subtle - certain fonts suggest certain types of business.

2. Uniqueness

You need to stand out from the competition, so your logo shouldn’t look too much like anyone else’s. You’d never mistake Microsoft for Apple, or Ford for Mitsubishi. While you want your logo to be relevant, that doesn’t mean it should look just like everyone else’s.

3. Simple

The most effective logos are often the simple ones - think about Apple! When you keep it simple, the important details are all right there. The perfect logo evokes your company on its own, without anything else - no other text, no other context. The more crowded it is, the less successful it usually is.

4. Flexible

You need to be able to use your new logo in every context: business cards, advertising, letterheads, email signatures and website branding. Make sure that you’re not choosing a logo which will only look good at a certain size, for example. Sometimes, a versatile icon can be simplified to just one element for smaller contexts: if your logo is a wordmark, maybe the first letter can be used on its own on your business cards.

5. Timeless

Some companies go through redesign after redesign, just looking for the perfect logo. Sometimes it is appropriate to have a refresh and get a new logo redesign, but you want to do that on your own terms, when you’re ready for it. So you need a logo that will last, and which you’re happy with first time round.

Keeping all that in mind, it’s time to get started! You can go and post a project or contest right now on Freelancer and start the process of getting the perfect logo designed. You could be just days away from the perfect new look, at a price no one can beat.

Why Post A Project?

Your other option is to offer a project. This means you’ll work with one freelancer, or possibly a team, who will put together options until you have something you’re happy with. You can search for specific freelancers using our freelancer directory or by looking through past projects in the showcase, and offer your project to selected users, or you could open it for all bidders. Whatever you do, make sure people provide samples of their past work before you hire them – make sure you like their style and ideas, because they’ll be bringing that same style to your logo concept!

Why Post A Contest?

Running a contest on Freelancer is a good way to get a big range of entries. You can choose whatever suits you best from a whole range of options, without having to pay for every artist’s time. Some very talented graphic designers participate in Freelancer contests, and this can be incentive for people to get really creative.

There are a lot of options for customizing how to run a contest, including having sealed entries, and running a top and featured contest so that freelancers know that this is the contest to participate in.

You can rate the designs you like and pinpoint certain areas of a design that need work. Chat directly to freelancers about any revisions you need, and award multiple winners if you'd like.

We Put It To The Test…

That’s it. We gave our graphic designers free reign with style, colors and fonts. And in the span of seven days, we received over 300 entries. These are some of the logo concepts we received:

Now It's Your Turn!

Get the best logo concept designed for your business today. Freelancer houses thousands of the top graphic designers from around the world. Simply post a project or contest, and you'll start to recieve bids within minutes. Get started today!